A quote from the article, "A fellow blogger, going by the name of Aaron, has created a series of widgets that closely resemble Apple's own set of widgets and can be used to displace the genuine ones. One of these fake widgets can run with full system access without the user's express permission." By definition such an application is malware, which is worse than spyware. If Macs ever get a larger share of total computer users, it stands at 5% give or take, we can be sure that there WILL be new viruses, malware, ect for us also.

It does look like OS X 10.4.2 will finally address one widget security issue by including a widget manager, that surprise will let you disable and uninstall widgets - wonder who was the idoit who forgot that feature in the first place. 10.4.2 looks good, can't wait!

A practical way to stay safe (for now) is to download widgets from the apple website -- there are already more than you may ever have the time to try and erase

When you download a widget from Apple's site does it come from their server or from the publishers? I might be reaching, but there could be a security risk if it's coming from the publisher's server.

The linked addresses start from wsidecar.apple.com, so the widgets ought to be maintained by apple. I do believe that apple tests them before uploading the links (if they are sane, which cannot be too hard to be).

i have been a mac user for 7 years now and i have never encountered a virus, spyware or anything dodgy like that
This is the real world of computers where your system 'Just Works'!!
No more pain or suffering, no more Norton or McAfee slowing down your system as they use up too much memory in your system tray!!!
none of these email virus's work cos they're .exe attachments just wont work on the mac as the file system is totally the opposite to a peecee.

McAfee does make a virus app. Pretty much the only reason to have this would be to catch virii in email attachments that you might send on to other Windows users. It might be worth it if you want to help innoculate the internet, but other than that...

i believe my router has one built in...guess i should check on that..hahaha

Most routers have a firewall built-in, but the firewall in OS X is awesome. It's in SysPrefs->Sharing->Firewall. Just check the box and you're done. It really shouldn't interfere with any programs because you can just check the box next to the program to allow access to ports it needs._________________Computer Engineer
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